


Howl

by green78



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:08:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/786913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green78/pseuds/green78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A songfic written to Florence + the Machine's "Howl," done in part for rubylucasridinghoodmeghanory on tumblr. Rated for semi-explicit f/f sex - not overly explicit, but better safe than sorry.</p><p>"You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Howl

_If you could only see the beast you've made of me.  
_ _I've held it in, but now it seems you've set it running free._

The wolf had claimed Belle the moment Ruby laid eyes on her. As the young woman sat and drank her third iced tea, marvelling at the world she'd been locked away from, Ruby stared, feeling the wolf stir within. Her blood raced, her skin heated, her senses all but tripled as she watched Belle's every movement, and her body howled with desire. It had taken all her self-control to remain friendly and casual when she sat across from the bright-eyed brunette and told her about the library. The wolf _wanted_ her, and so did Ruby.

 _Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart.  
_ _Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart._

When Belle had come to her rescue that first night of Wolfstime, wrapped her arm around Ruby's waist and told Billy/Gus that they had a girl's night planned, Ruby nearly lost the composure she had been fighting so hard to keep. Just having Belle in the diner – close enough to hear her, smell her, _taste_ her in the air – had Ruby strung out even more than the fear of losing control of her wolf form. With Belle that close, wrapped around her like that...it made the taller woman want to drag her into the freezer, lock the door, and ravish her until she screamed Ruby's name.

But what stopped her, what allowed her to achieve such a heroic feat of self-control, were feelings deeper than simple lust. Ruby understood, now, that what she had felt when she had first seen Belle was not simply the wolf marking attractive prey. If it had been, Ruby would already have tried to initiate a night or two of passionate fucking and left it at that. But this was different – she and the wolf weren't just after Belle because she was kind and sweet and beautiful (though she was indeed all of these things); they were after her because she was _Belle_. They didn't want her as prey, but as _mate_.

They were falling in love.

 _My fingers claw your skin. Try to tempt my way in.  
_ _You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl._

When Belle told her in the library that she wasn't afraid of her, wasn't afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, Ruby's heart sang even as it broke. Oh, but if she didn't deserve her execution, how much she'd worship the fearless young woman before her – touch and kiss every inch of her, show her the depth of the wolf's yearning for her. But she couldn't. All Ruby could do was trick her (and how it broke her heart even more) and say her goodbyes.

But then Ruby was saved – her name cleared, the wolf under control and remembering every moment of the night. And as Ruby stared up at the moon, human and wrapped in her cloak, the wolf within still howled – in triumph, in hope, and in desire that had now become possible.

_My fingers claw your skin. Try to tempt my way in._

What Ruby had told David was true – she wanted to run again after twenty-eight years, but she had a destination in mind. When she once again touched the earth with four powerful paws, she ran for the library and the woman she was determined to claim. She arrived just in time to see Granny leave with the chains and lurked in the shadows until the woman had returned to the diner. Then the wolf slunk up to the door and knocked against it in as human a rhythm as she could.

It didn't take long for Belle to open the door. “Did you forget som--” Her words cut off with a yelp as the wolf stood on its back legs and pushed her down. Following the young woman in her descent, the creature kicked the door shut behind it before pinning its prey to the floor, yellow eyes boring into blue. Belle was breathing heavily, but not from fear. She made no attempt to escape, meeting the wolf's eyes without flinching. “I'm not afraid of you,” she whispered in a husky voice, repeating her vow from earlier. Her breath ghosted across the wolf's fur, and the creature shivered above her. Then the moon was gone, and fur gave way to hot skin and brown hair.

“Good,” Ruby whispered in return, and when she bent to kiss Belle, the brunette lifted her head to meet her.

 _You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl...howl...  
_ _Howl...howl..._

On the last night of Wolfstime, Ruby ran beneath the moon as she had so long desired, but as the dawn approached, she ended her jaunt at the door of the library. Her last howl was not for the moon above, but for the woman she was returning to. Belle was smiling when she opened the door, and she let the wolf push her down once again, giggling as she surrendered beneath its paws. And when the wolf turned back into Ruby, Belle was ready with kisses and touches and gasps of aroused delight.

 _Now there's no holding back, I'm aching to attack.  
_ _My blood is stinging with your voice, I want to pour it out._

Their relationship didn't surprise anyone except Gold. When he begged Belle to reconsider, to come back to him, to give him another chance, the emboldened young woman told him that if he bothered her again, she would set Ruby on him. When she relayed the story to the woman in question, Ruby laughed for a good five minutes, and from then on made it a point to give Gold her most wolfish grin whenever she saw him. He got the message with surprising speed and left the two alone from then on, though he was more bitter and solitary than usual. Not that anyone minded or cared.

But despite their giddy tumble into love, Ruby and Belle never showed the true depths of their affection in public – not like Snow and Charming, whose kisses were beacons that could be seen by anyone within a mile. Instead, the two women shared knowing glances at the diner, in the library, when they walked together, brushing hands only briefly. But sometimes Belle would come to the diner after it closed, and Ruby wouldn't leave for another hour, and Belle would be wearing a scarf the next day to cover the marks.

 _The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound.  
_ _I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground._

The first night of the second Wolfstime, as the moon was beginning its return to the west, Ruby found Belle waiting for her at the edge of the woods instead of the library. The wolf froze when it saw her – not because it was surprised, having caught her scent before she came into view, but because Belle was wrapped in nothing but Ruby's red cloak, the rest of her clothes in a pile on the ground. Blood racing, vision going hazy with lust, the wolf circled the young woman, cherishing every beat of her pounding heart, basking in the scent of her nervousness trumped by her arousal. When it had completed its circuit, the creature sat in front of Belle with an expectant look, leaving the next move up to her. Taking a steadying breath, Belle pulled the cloak from her shoulders, baring herself to the wolf's hungry gaze.

“Make love to me?” she whispered, her voice shaking as she held out the red fabric. The wolf stepped forward, and a moment later, she stood up as Ruby, tying the cloak around her neck. The way she smiled at Belle dispelled the young woman's nervousness. The way Ruby took her into her arms made her feel safe.

The way Ruby kissed Belle made her feel loved.

Ruby was Belle's first beneath the moon's pale light in its last stretches before dawn. Covered by the cloak, the two women moved together in the soft grass until both had come undone. Glowing and sated, they lay in each other's arms and watched the sun rise.

 _Like some child possessed, the beast howls in my breast.  
_ _I hunt to find you, tear out all of your tenderness._

The longer Belle and Ruby were together, the more they each began to change. Belle smoothed some of Ruby's rougher edges, and Ruby gave Belle strength and self-confidence the librarian never thought she'd have. They never spent a single night apart, coming together in tender passion before letting sleep take them.

But Ruby was getting restless, as was the wolf. She wanted more with Belle – more than just the gentleness of their kisses and touches and passionate joinings. She wanted to take her – truly _claim_ her as a mate, as _hers._ As forever. But she wasn't sure how to explain it to Belle – how to explain the violent passion the wolf awoke within her. And the very last thing she wanted to do was hurt Belle – hurt the one who was most precious to her in all the world and every world beyond it. The inner battle tore Ruby apart.

One night, close to Wolfstime, Belle found Ruby curled up in the corner of their bedroom in the apartment above the library, arms around her knees, rocking back and forth as she cried. The brunette took the wolf-woman in her arms and guided her to the bed, soothing her with soft whispers and reassuring touches. Eventually, Belle coaxed an explanation from between sobs.

“I love you, Belle,” Ruby gasped through her tears, still fighting her raging lust. “I could never hurt you...I never want to hurt you...”

She wasn't expecting the ferocity with which the smaller woman kissed her. When she pulled away and Ruby looked up at her, Belle's blue eyes burned.

All her life, what Belle had wanted most, even more than adventure and love, was freedom – freedom to choose what she wanted to do, who she wanted to be, and whom she wanted to be with. The man who had first been her saviour had become like all the others – intent on telling her what to do, how to live, even if it was with her best interests in mind. But Ruby had never tried to control or restrain Belle in such a way, despite how closely bound they were. Ruby allowed her to _live_ , understanding far better than most what it meant to be trapped and have people try and make her what they wished. Hearing that the wolf-woman could have acted differently – that she could have claimed her without a second thought but held back out of love, that she wanted her, craved her more than anything, but refused to take away her freedom... It made Belle love Ruby more than she'd thought possible.

Ruby gave Belle choice. Belle chose to belong to Ruby.

The brunette kissed her girlfriend, her _lover_ , again with demanding passion.“I love you too, Ruby, and I'm _yours_.” Her voice quivered with barely-restrained desire. “Claim me. You have me. Take all of me. ...Make me your mate.”

The wolf within howled its victory as Ruby covered Belle's body with hers, holding her arms above her head as their lips crashed together with fire and hunger.

_And howl...howl..._

The bed was on the verge of breaking the next morning, and both women were covered in bruises and bite marks and red lines down their backs and around their hips left by clawing fingers. Belle had never hurt so good in her life. Ruby felt like she could fly.

_Howl...howl..._

Neither could stop grinning all day, which only prompted smirks from Granny, Emma, and Snow when the lovers showed up at the diner an hour after Ruby's shift was supposed to start.

 _Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers  
_ _And starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters._

It was Belle who began the Wolfstime Hunt. It changed every night – sometimes Belle was the frightened girl running from a terrifying predator intent to devour her, sometimes Ruby was the creature trying to elude a ruthless hunter intent on her fur. When either caught the other, Belle would throw the red cloak over Ruby and the two would retreat to a clearing deep in the woods where the victor could do as she wished with her captive. Ruby was wary at first, the thought of devouring dredging up horrific memories and old pain. After a night of having her wicked way with Belle, however, “devouring” her in a different sense and making her cry out beneath the moon, Ruby became positively eager for Wolfstime.

 _The fabric of your flesh pure as a wedding dress.  
_ _Until I wrap myself inside your arms I cannot rest._

As the Hunts continued, the two women came up with more and more creative ways to ignite the chase, and when they met and brought the flames of their desire to a finale, it was with animalistic violence and passion. At first, for Belle's sake, Ruby used to pretend she was injured, until Belle became far too adept at tracking her. Once, Belle ran through the forest wearing nothing but the red cloak again, and the scent drove the wolf wild with distraction as Ruby tried to follow her trail. The resulting sex left Belle so gloriously bruised that Snow sat her down the next day and asked with genuine worry if Ruby was abusing her. Belle almost fell out of her chair laughing. The story made Emma and Ruby laugh just as hard, Emma not being as naïve as her mother and Ruby having shown Emma her own bruises.

 _The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound.  
_ _I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground._

It was Belle's turn to run. Exhilaration and delicious fear pushed her forward as she leapt over fallen branches and ducked under tree trunks barely held upright by their brothers. She heard Ruby – the wolf, _her_ wolf – howl its hungry excitement, and she knew the chase had begun. _Ready or not, here I come._ Belle grinned, adrenaline pulsing through her veins and pooling between her thighs even as she searched for a place to hide or a path that might confuse the wolf. But then she heard the crunching of sticks beneath paws and knew that her best hope was to keep running.

Belle had just found a tree with low-hanging branches she could pull herself up to (though she had discovered the hard way one night that, while a regular wolf might not be able to climb, Ruby certainly could) when she felt sharp teeth close around her ankle, strong enough to yank her to the ground, gentle enough not to even scratch her skin. Belle giggled as the wolf leapt atop her, paws on her shoulders, nose to hers, a smug look in its eyes that said, _Gotcha!_

“Ok, ok, you got me!” Belle shrieked as the wolf licked her face. Satisfied, the creature let her up, and Belle pulled herself onto its back, wrapping her arms around its neck and burying her face in soft black fur.

_...And howl..._

The wolf raised its head to the sky and howled as it ran, powerful muscles bunching beneath fur as it carried Belle beneath the moon's light. As many times as Belle had clung to Ruby in this form as she took her to their clearing, the wolf's strength never ceased to amaze her, and her giddy laughter mingled with the creature's exultant cry.

 _Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers  
_ _And starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters._

Their clearing was small enough and deep enough into the woods that the sky was nearly obscured by trees, but just big enough to let the two women lie beneath the moon in all its glory. They had made it theirs – almost a second home but more of a sanctuary from the rest of the world, and kept a nearby cache of food, a tent for when it rained, and a bag of supplies for... _other_ activities.

The wolf let Belle slide from its back, and the woman pulled the red cloak from around her shoulders and draped it over the creature that was her love. Ruby tied the cape around her neck with human fingers, grinning in anticipation as she pulled her love into a deep kiss. Belle returned it eagerly, running her tongue along Ruby's lips before delving further, tangling her fingers in dark hair.

_A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night_

Clothes were torn in the frantic need to feel skin against hot skin. Bodies crashed together in a frenzy of kisses and nips and gasps and cries and touches that lit fires deep within. Lips trailed across a shoulder and down a pale collarbone to taste the swell of full breasts, drawing whimpers from the willing victim beneath.

_May still become a wolf when the Autumn moon is bright._

Nails raised a criss-cross of welts, pleas were chanted into the night as knowing fingers found wanting heat and stoked the fire until it burst free with a scream of ecstasy.

 _If you could only see the beast you've made of me.  
_ _I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free._  

The harness and corresponding attachment had been Ruby's idea, nervously presented, but when she saw the gleam in Belle's eyes and the flush of her skin, Ruby knew that her gift was more than welcome. And indeed, Belle welcomed it, lying back beneath the moon, rolling her hips in desperation as she clutched at the grass to keep herself grounded. Ruby knelt before her, Belle's legs wrapped around her as the wolf-woman kept a ruthless pace, fingers digging into her hips with an unforgiving grip. Belle was close, Ruby could see that she was close, and she wanted the beauty writhing at her mercy to find her release first. Ruby did so love to watch.

The dark-haired woman reached out with tender fingertips to stroke the pulsing bundle of nerves at Belle's centre, and at the first sweeping touch, every muscle in Belle's body tightened, her back bowing as she keened and wailed her pleasure to the sky.

 _The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound.  
_ _I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground._

It didn't matter that Ruby was human, didn't matter that she was wearing her cloak, that she was making love to the most precious woman in the world as a woman herself, enraptured by the sight of her love coming undone... When her climax overtook her, Ruby threw her head back and howled.


End file.
